Athletes alike continually endure stresses and pressures during the four-year preparation period between Olympic competitions. Olympians often need support for their psychological problems. However, athletes' experiences of such support have not been fully elucidated. This study clarified Olympian's experiences and psychological changes from their interview. In addition, according the result we discussed what kind of psychological supports Olympian needs in the future. We interviewed three, two time Olympic athletes, who did not achieve their Olympic goals and analyzed their experiences using the Trajectory Equifinality Model (TEM). Results showed that the athletes were influenced by social expectations, as well as by their relationship with coaches, teammates, and others. throughout Olympic campaigns. The results also revealed that there were psychological processes by events and the influences of society surrounding the athlete. Four characteristics of psychological support required by Olympic athletes were identified sequentially: (1) change of the competition environment, (2) surge of social attention, (3) environmental changes before the Olympics, and (4) giving meaning to the Olympics. The results also indicated that (3) and (4) were the most significant aspects of support.

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The purpose of this study is to investigate, through eight case studies, the internal experiences that coaches have when they are coping with their own conflicting feelings. Coaches often have various conflicting feelings when they are carrying out their duties in school athletic club activities. One might claim that a simplistic solution is to ignore such feelings. However, this perspective does not demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of what they face. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate their internal experiences before deciding on a method to solve the conflict.
This study was based on several semi-structured interviews with eight coaches, and presents four cases from among these. Coaches' internal experiences of coping with self conflicts were found to take three forms: the narrowing, the deepening, and the widening of their internal experiences. In the first phase, when coaches have self conflicts, they tend to increase their worries because their viewpoints are confined by the effect of the negative feelings of other people and the coaches themselves. However, coaches also tend to obtain a new insight into dealing with the self conflict through the following two internal experiences. The first is the experience of deepening self understanding by being honest with oneself when dealing with such negative feelings. The second is deepening understanding of others and the conflict phenomenon at the same time as widening one's view through external experience.
These results indicate that the coaches who increase their worries through self conflict are narrowing their internal experiences, but they solve their conflicts through deepening and widening their internal experiences.

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Athletic retirement is not limited to being a crisis; it can also be an opportunity for psychosocial development and transition. In this paper, the internal changes which took place during the adaptation process in a retired world-class athlete are discussed after being revealed in the client's dreams and pictures (Landscape Montage Technique) by psychotherapy.
Hashi-san (assumed name) was a world-class athlete of an individual sport (for confidentiality reasons, no specific details can be given). Hashi-san qualified for many consecutive appearances in a top international competitive event and won a medal on each occasion. Over a period of several years, psychological support for Hashi-san took place once a week for 60 min. For the first two years, the focus was on mental training, with an aim to improve Hashi-san's competitive spirit. This support lasted for 73 sessions until Hashi-san's final international competition.
This paper focuses on approximately 80 psychotherapy sessions for athletic retirement which took place after the mental training sessions. The psychotherapy sessions can be divided into four periods: coping with retirement; stagnation and depression; self discovery; and returning to the athletic field as a coach.
The following internal changes in the adaptation process after athletic retirement were identified: 1. retirement ceremony, mourning; 2. self discovery, intrapsychic development; and 3. connecting past and future, self consistency. The three post-retirement periods constitute psychological tasks, which can be used as the basis for a working hypothesis for future athletic retirement research that can be applied to top athletes who have previously committed their lives to their sport.

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The purpose of the present study was to examine visual search strategies employed by batters during a pitcher's pre-release motion. Eye movement, response time, and response accuracy were measured and analyzed while subjects were asked to observe images of pitches thrown by a pitcher edited using spatial occlusion techniques and to press a pushbutton switch when they decided to swing the bat. The results showed that the batters gazed at the pitcher's pitching wrist, elbow, and arm during the final period. When the pitcher's pitching arm was selectively occluded, the response time was significantly delayed compared with when the pitcher's other body parts were occluded. The findings suggest the importance of strategies for acquiring visual cues for batting by watching a pitcher's pitching arm during the final period. When the pitching wrist and wrist plus elbow were selectively presented during the final period, the response time was significantly delayed compared with when the pitcher's pitching wrist plus elbow plus arm, upper body, and lower body were shown. These results indicate that experts set their visual pivot on the pitcher's elbow and predict cues of the pitching arm from the whole pitcher's motion.

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The aim of this study is to clarify the relationship between the experiences with the goal setting and time attitude of the high school students who participate in athletic clubs. The investigation consisting of 5 surveys was introduced to 398 high school students (210 athletic clubs' students, 77 non-athletic clubs' students, and 111 students who not participate in any kind of club). From the results of this study, it was clarified that (1) the goal-setting skill was related to goal-directedness in athletic clubs' students and non-athletic clubs' students. On the other hand, there is little relationship between the goal-setting skill and goal-directedness in students who not participate in any kind of club. (2) In athletic clubs' students, the interpretation of experiences at clubs was related to hopefulness and self-fullness. Consequently, it is considered that the experiences of goal setting in clubs and the interpretation of the experiences at clubs were related to the time attitude of athletic clubs' students, while the interpretation of the experiences at clubs had little relationship to the time attitude of non-athletic clubs' students.

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